Magic of movies - 1929

1929
1.Melody of Love (1928), a Universal production in English, was the first Talkie film shown in India at Elphinstone Picture Palace in Calcutta.
2.Gopal Krishna
Gopal Krishna (Child Krishna) is an Indian religious silent film made in 1929. It was directed by V. Shantaram for his newly formed Prabhat Film Company.The film was a "solo debut" for Shantaram, after co-directing Netaji Palkar (1927) with K. Dhaiber for the Maharashtra Film Company. The story was written by Shivram Vashikar and the cast composed of Suresh, Kamaladevi, Anant Apte, Sakribai and G.R. Mane.
The story was about the child (Gopal) Krishna and his fight with King Kamsa of Mathura. Made in the Pre-Independence era, the film was cited as representing the "Gandhian anti-colonial nationalism". Shantaram stated that he had meshed the Puranic story with "topical allusions". The film was a success as was the Talkie remake Gopal Krishna (1938).
Cast
Suresh,Kamaladevi,Anant Apte,Sakribai,G. R. Mane
3.Prapancha Pash

A Throw of Dice (Prapancha Pash) is a 1929 silent film by German-born director Franz Osten, based on an episode from the Indian epic The Mahabharata. Osten made 19 films in India between 1926 and 1939, and A Throw of Dice formed the final part of a trilogy of Indo-German productions by Osten and Indian actor-producer Himanshu Rai, the other two being Prem Sanyas (1925) and Shiraz (1928). After a gap, Osten returned to India, and worked on Bombay Talkies with Rai. During the production of Kangan (The Bangle) in 1939, Osten, a member of the Nazi Party, was arrested by British colonial officials, and was incarcerated until the end of the Second World War.
A Throw of Dice has been in the British Film Institute (BFI)’s archives since 1945, though rarely seen. In 2006, in honour of the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, the film was digitally restored, then re-released at the Luminato Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 13 June 2008, with a new orchestral score by British Indian composer Nitin Sawhney. The United States release occurred on 30 July 2008 during the Grant Park Music Festival at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois.[
The movie is about two kings vying for the love of a hermit's daughter, the beautiful Sunita. The two kings, Ranjit and Sohan, share a passion for gambling and decide to play a game of craps to determine who will marry her. Sunita wishes to marry Ranjit. Ranjit loses the game to the nefarious Sohan and as a forfeit becomes his slave. Sunita soon uncovers the truth about Sohan's evil deeds and to escape punishment he hurls himself off a cliff into the rapids below. Ranjit and Sunita are reunited and married.
Upon its re-release in 2007, a New York Times review stated, "There’s hardly a frame in the 1929 film “A Throw of Dice” that doesn’t provide a surge of visual pleasure", while a Guardian reviewer, Peter Bradshaw, called it, "a rare and fascinating gem". The Observer reviewer, Philip French, termed it, "a remarkable silent movie".
A Throw of Dice, the third Indian film by Franz Osten is considered by many his greatest achievement. The silent film was shot in black and white on 35mm film. It contains thousands of cast members and animals, including 10,000 extras, 1,000 horses and scores of elephants and tigers. The film was shot on location in Rajasthan.
Nitin Sawhney, composer of the new 2006 score, describes the film as "A cross between Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille and an early Bollywood movie." On many occasions, it has been compared to a Cecil B. DeMille film for its levels of extravagance.
Nishat Khan composed a new orchestral score, which premiered on 25 April 2013, as part of the 100 Years of Indian Film festival, at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi, with the composer playing sitar and singing, accompanied by the Bollywood Orchestra.
Cast
Seeta Devi (Sunita),Himansu Rai (Sohan),Charu Roy (Ranjit),Modhu Bose,Sarada Gupta (The Hermit),Lala Bijoykishen,Tincory Chakrabarty
https://hollywoodrevue.wordpress.com/tag/charu-roy/
Charu Roy
https://memsaabstory.com/tag/charu-roy/

4.Kapal Kundala

Director: Priyanath N. Ganguly

15 films directed by him are

 1936 Kal Parinaya, 1935 Bidyasundar , 1935 Pataal Puri , 1934 Taruni , 1933 Jamuna Puliney , 1933 Radha Krishna, 1931 Debi Choudhrani , 1931/II Prahlad , 1931/I Prahlad , 1930 Kal Parinaya , 1929 Kapal Kundala, 1928 Sarala , 1927 Jana , 1927 Durgesh Nandini , 1926 Krishnakanter Will

Writer: Bankimchandra Chatterjee (novel)

Stars: Durgadas Bannerjee, Tulsi Bannerjee, Probodh Bose 

This was the first Indian film to achieve a "silver jubilee" run of 25 weeks.

5.Hatim Tai

A big budget four-part serial based on the Arabian Nights. It tells of the traveler Hatim and his encounters with the fairy Gulnar. It was a popular Parsee theatre story.
Director: Prafulla Ghosh
Stars: Rampiary,A.R. Pahelwan,Gulab,Hydershah,Haridas,Durga,Gangaram,Rosy,Leslie,Miss Hormez,Motibai











6.Kono Vonk? also called Whose Fault? directed by Kanjibhai Rathod for Krishna Film Company, was a social film based on a story by K. M. Munshi, about a child widow marrying the lawyer who helps her.
7.Film Companies: Prabhat Film Company, Kolhapur, was established in partnership between V. Shantaram, V. G. Damle, Keshavrao Dhaiber, S. Fattelal and S. Kulkarni, later joined by Baburao Pai in 1939. Ranjit Film Company, Bombay, was founded by Chandulal Shah. British Dominion Films was set up by Dhiren Ganguly and P. C. Barua, with Debaki Bose as the scriptwriter. Aurora Film Corporation and General Pictures Corporation (Madras) were also founded in 1929.
8.Husn Ka Daku is a 1929 action adventure silent film directed by A. R. Kardar. The film, also called Mysterious Eagle was made by Kardar's Playart Phototone. Kardar acted in this, his first production from Playart Phototone. Playart Phototone was a progression from United Player's Corporation, which he had set up in 1928. Husn Ka Daku was Kardar's debut directorial venture. It set the foundations for the Lahore film industry in the Bhati Gate area of Lahore. The director of photography was D. D. Dabke.
The film starred A. R. Kardar and Gulzar in the lead, with the American actress Iris Crawford, M. Ismail, G. R. John and Ghulam Kadir forming the ensemble cast.
Mazhar Khan (1905–1950)

He was an actor-producer-director in Indian Cinema. He was acknowledged for his "intense but natural performances", which was best exemplified by Mazhar, a Muslim, acting the role an upper-caste Hindu in V. Shantaram's "classic" film Padosi (1941). He started his career as a police officer, which he left to study law for a short period. Abandoning his studies he came to Bombay and started his career in cinema with the silent film Fatal Garland opposite the top actress of the time, Ermeline. He became a popular actor, with "success following success" in several silent films. During his stint in silent films he worked with well-established directors like Bhagwati Mishra, Ezra Mir, Moti P. Bhagnani, R. S. Chowdhary, and M. D. Bhavnani. The magazines of those days, "as late as 1942" compared Mazhar to Hollywood actors like Paul Muni, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

Mazhar Khan made a successful transition to Talkies with the end of the Silent Era. Nurjehan (1931), directed by Ezra Mir, was his first Talkie picture. It received a positive response from the audiences establishing Mazhar as a profitable and dependable actor. He went on to work with the East India Film Company in Calcutta and Sagar Movietone, making films like Sultana, Night Bird, Salima and Sonhera Sansar. He then moved back to Bombay and worked under Ranjit Movietone. Having established himself in the different roles he portrayed, he became renowned for "his brilliant characterisations". He was recognised as a "a celebrity of the first ranking and the most discussed man in films". He formed his own production company, Asiatic Pictures under the banner of which he first made Yaad (1942) and then Pehli Nazar (1945), which is written as his "best directorial triumph". He introduced actress Veena in Yaad and Munawwar Sultana as a lead heroine in Pehli Nazar. His last role was in Usha Kiran.
Boman Shroff
He was an actor, stunstman, director, writer, producer in Hindi cinema, in the silent era and the early talkies. Boman started working in Hindi movies prior to Talkies and was on monthly payroll of JBH Wadia and Homi Wadia's various movie production houses. In mid thirties when Wadia brothers started making populist action movies Boman's roles came to prominence. 1935 Wadia Movietone production, Hunterwali starring Fearless Nadia was a big hit and career defining movie for everyone involved including Boman, the male lead.
Lalita Pawar (18 April 1916 – 24 February 1998)

She was a prolific Indian actress, who later became famous as a character actress, appearing in over 700 films in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati cinema, where she gave hits such as Netaji Palkar (1938), made by Bhalji Pendharkar, New Hana Pictures’ Sant Damaji, Navyug Chitrapat’s Amrit, written by VS Khandekar, and Chhaya Films’ Gora Kumbhar. Her other memorable roles were in the films Anari (1959), Shri 420 and Mr & Mrs 55, and the role of Manthara, in Ramanand Sagar's television epic serial Ramayan.

She started her acting career at age nine in the film Raja Harishchandra (1928), and later went on to play lead roles in the silent era and 1940's films, in a career that lasted until the end of her life, spanning seven decades.
She co-produced and acted in a silent film Kailash (1932), and later produced another film Duniya Kya Hai in 1938, a talkie.
In 1942, as a part of a scene in the movie Jung-E-Azadi, actor Master Bhagwan was to slap her hard. Being a new actor, he accidentally slapped her very hard, which resulted in facial paralysis and a burst left eye vein. Three years of treatment later, she was left with a defective left eye; thus she had to abandon lead roles, and switch to character roles, which won her much of her fame later in life.
She was known particularly for playing maternal figures, especially wicked matriarchs or mothers-in-law. She also notably played the role of the strict but kind Mrs. L. D'Sa in Anari (1959) with Raj Kapoor. Under Hrishikesh Mukherjee's direction, she gave the performance of a lifetime,for which she received the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. And as the tough matriarch who falls in love in Professor (1962), and the devious hunchback Manthara in Ramanand Sagar's television series Ramayan. She was honored by the Government of India as the first lady of Indian cinema in 1961.
Nanubhai Vakil
He was a Hindi and Gujarati film director. He was the first to make a Gujarati talkie film with a biopic on the saint Narsinh Mehta in 1932. Narsinh Mehta's (1932) star cast included the actress Mehtab. Vakil frequently collaborated with Zubeida and Patience Cooper. The twelve-year-old Suraiya, who had done minor roles as a child artist in films like Usne Kya Socha (1937) was cast as the young Mumtaz in Taj Mahal (1941) by Vakil. Vakil later remade several of the silent films "based on Parsi theatre plays".W. M. Khan, who became famous as the first person to sing in an Indian film, "De De Allah Ke Naam Pe Pyare" in Alam Ara (1931) was made to reprise that song and role when he was seventy-one years old by Nanubhai Vakil. The film was Vakil's version of Alam Ara (1973), produced by Maffatlal Shah, with music by Iqbal Qureshi.